August 2010 Archives

Over the last few months,  I've been studying for the IDM's Digital Marketing Diploma, driven by a couple of things:

1. A desire to keep learning about the ever changing digital marketing space, to reinforce my own knowledge and fill in gaps.

2. To assess how good the course really is and whether it's appropriate for us (RBI) to sponsor members of our marketing team

Well, on the second point, I have to say that I have been impressed with the course overall, particularly the models and frameworks that help turn the theory into practice.  My first assignment (there are two in total), a study of a young ecommerce company called www.whatafind.com was due in last Friday and delivered on time! To say that it was more work than I'd anticipated, is an understatement, but writing these assignments is a great way to reinforce learning and actually play with the many tools available..and there are so many. Tools such as: Hitwise, Google's Ad Planner, Website Optimiser, BrandWatch, Hubspot, Google Insight..and many more.

One set of (Free) resources that I must highlight as you may not have come across it yet, is Dave Chaffey's site.  There,  you'll find so much that can help you plan your marketing programmes effectively. Of particular value is Chaffey's suite of spreadsheet templates which will help you forecast costs and returns, plan 'what if' scenarios and much more.

References

Dave's suite of spreadsheets

The IDM's Digital Marketing courses  

Econsultancy Digital Training courses

One of the positives of a recession is that lack of resources and money forces people to be creative. If you're hungry and desperate, you have to do things differently or face extinction.

As previous recessions have shown, a recession changes the rules - market leaders fall from grace, and mr nobody from nowhere has the opportunity to become a global brand! That's life.

B2B Marketing Magazine asked whether the spirit of innovation is likely to change now that things (hopefully) continue to improve. You can read Chris Wilson, Chair of ABBA and Mai Honan, Director of Positive Thinking, views here.

Here's another very useful and practical guide from Google on ways to make your website work.

As is often the case these days, they have boiled it all down to 10 things which improve the customer experience and boost conversions. They include things such as:

1. Bring me to the right page

2. Display groups of products clearly

... so not rocket science, but often neglected.

Download Making Your Website Work

Download Making Your Website Work